Archive for category Emily Bett Rickards

Get ready for a whole lot more Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards) on The CW’s Arrow! Can we get an amen?

The fan favorite is about to be brought into Oliver’s (Stephen Amell) inner circle on Wednesday’s episode, “The Odyssey,” but she will also be upped to series regular for Season 2, ensuring her involvement with Starling City’s favorite vigilante is not going to end in fatal danger.

“My favorite part is that the relationships start to change,” Rickards told Celebuzz. “With Oliver, she’s still a super nervous human being, and that doesn’t change, God bless her; she’s awesome. That doesn’t change, but she starts to trust Oliver, and I think it becomes very sweet,” Rickards said.

“Oliver never really lets his guard down for anyone, but having her there creates a different dynamic – even just having a female there in the lair and in that relationship. It loosens some things; it becomes more comfortable; and we’ll see that relationship evolve definitely into the first season.”

Oliver turns to Felicity for help getting back to his lair after getting shot in a tense stand-off at the top of “The Odyssey” episode. But the timing couldn’t be more perfect, because Rickards feels Felicity was onto Oliver anyway. She may not have been given opportunity to prove she knew what was going on before he admits who he is to her, but it all clicks into place immediately, and it causes Felicity to spring into action.

“I think the energy drink in the syringe was quite the [last straw] for her… She had her hunches, I’ll say that. She definitely knew something was up with him. He’s not exactly the most comfortable human being for her to be around, and I think her first instinct was ‘there’s definitely something going on,’” Rickards said.

“The way she finds out with him in the back of her car [is] extremely terrifying, but when he takes off the hood, it clarifies everything. She’s very systematic about the way she thinks about things. When I was doing my research for that scene… it was just like all the lights in her mind went green. She was like, ‘That makes sense!'”

Rickards shared that she believes Felicity’s own stance on the vigilante’s actions and a sense of justice in general changed the minute she learned who was under the hood “because she knows Oliver,” but she noted that it will change again as the next batch of episodes unfold and she gets to know Oliver even better.

“He’s no longer just the fa ade of a millionaire man; he’s a real human being trying to help other people and have gotten himself into this lifestyle, if you will, and now there’s no barrier between them there. Her view on justice does change as well, because of Oliver, but she really does want to keep her morals strong,” Rickards said.

“There is an art thief that steals a precious jewel, and [Felicity] tries to get Oliver to take him – to grab somebody who isn’t actually on the list. It’s something that Felicity has her paws in and says ‘This isn’t right. You can’t just stick to people on the list; there’s other people out there who are bad, too!'”

As Felicity and Oliver and Diggle (David Ramsey) get closer and work together more, the dynamics between the characters will shift and evolve accordingly. One thing Rickards shared she would love to get to do is actually train with the guys (“She needs some physical fitness in her life, too; she can’t just be stuck behind a computer her whole life!”), and come Season 2, she said that would actually become a reality. Whether or not Oliver and Felicity’s relationship would become anything more than platonic, though, was something still to be determined.

“For me, when we’re working in the foundry and on different scenes with Oliver, it seems more friendship-based, and it’s always more ‘Trust me, trust me.’ There’s some sort of family camaraderie, and there’s also a spark. They do have chemistry. Whether it’s romantic chemistry or friendship chemistry, that’s up for debate,” Rickards said.

Arrow airs on Wednesdays at 8PM on The CW.

How do you feel about Felicity being brought into the fold more on Arrow, and are you rooting for her and Oliver to hook up romantically, too? Let us know in the comments below!

– Danielle Turchiano

Watch a flashback from the last episode of Arrow below.

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